(500) Days of Summer

Now, this movie wasn’t on my list before I picked it up and watched it. Is it something most people have seen? Possibly. Am I going to occasionally watch and reviews movies that aren’t on the list and maybe aren’t so commonly watched? You bet! I know what my main purpose for this blog is, but the way I see it, I might as well review other things I watch even if they don’t strictly fall into the group of movies that elicit “You’ve never seen what?” when I admit I haven’t seen them.

I’ll be honest: I spent most of the movie expecting Summer’s ring to be from Tom. Some time during their last scene, I realized it wasn’t. Should I have realized it earlier? Even as things got rockier, I kept hoping we’d jump to scenes where everything improved and led up to the ring. Was I supposed to be “tricked” and assume as I did and forget about it and realize later? Who knows. But I was disappointed when I realized there was no way that ring could be what I hoped it was. I should have seen it coming that they didn’t end up together. I mean, it was “500 days” of Summer, not “eternal” Summer or “until death do us part” Summer. And we were told that it wasn’t a love story. Yes, I probably should have known it wasn’t going to happen. I’m just secretly a hopeless romantic.

During Tom and Summer’s last scene, I honestly thought I would be disappointed in how the movie would end. After all, I’d been rooting for them the whole time. I thought she ended up with his ring on her finger! And they just seemed to make sense together. Now, it’d be one thing if Summer was having fun with the single life. But our anti-boyfriend gal had turned into a married lady. And remember the time span of this movie is, obviously, only 500 days—and she knew her husband for less than half of that time. What gives, Summer? I don’t know if I buy that it just felt right to her. That’s such a change. So I’m still out on my final verdict on Summer. Of course, maybe I was just having difficulty accepting that a well-dressed, intelligent Joseph Gordon-Levitt character could possibly not end up with the one he thought was his dream girl. But I am happy for Tom. I guess if he’s over Summer and ready to move on, then I’m ready to see him with someone else. (You know, if it makes sense for me to have to approve of fictional characters moving on with their lives.) And naming the new girl (see what I did there? Zooey Deschanel is the new girl in New Girl?) Autumn? Maybe I should have expected it, maybe not. I didn’t, so I thought it was smart. And I like to think it’s going to work out.

Even if I had been more prepared for the ending, I think I still would have enjoyed watching them fall in love. I always enjoy that, when it’s believable and real, which I think this was. Pretending the rooms in IKEA are your home, keeping up a running joke about something inconsequential like Ringo being someone’s favorite Beatle, showing someone your favorite spot… that’s how you fall in love. (Said the young woman who’s pretty sure she’s never done that.) If it’s not, then whatever it was was still a process I enjoyed watching.

I enjoyed that the story was told non-chronologically . I like when I know things that are coming but I don’t know how it gets there. Or I like thinking something is coming and then seeing how it doesn’t. Here’s something interesting (to me, anyway): I only like that when it’s meant to be that way. I would never read the last page of a book first. It’s just not set up to be told that way. There’s a reason it’s the last page. But as an intentional storytelling device, that’s great. (Here’s where I recommend The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I mean the book, as I have not watched the movie, and have heard from one book fan that it was disappointing. But that’s a post for another time, after I’ve watched and formed my own opinion. Back to the movie at hand.)

And I liked that we were told exactly where we were in time. Could I have figured out when events occurred in relation to each other without being told? Most likely. Did I like knowing how many days elapsed between events and where we were out in the grand scheme of 500? Yes. I mean, you wouldn’t put 500 in the title if you weren’t going to make it actually meaningful and relevant, right? Right. I wouldn’t, anyway. Maybe I’m just a creep who likes to keep close tabs on the day by day development of fictional characters’ relationships. Or a nerd. Psh, labels.

As for Rachel, I’d like to know more about her. Why does she confidently spout relationship advice? I’m not convinced that realistic for a girl her age, but maybe I’m not supposed to be. And maybe that was just my experience. Regardless, it’s pretty adorable.

That’s all from me. I’m gonna go check my bathroom to make sure it’s clear of Chinese families.

Juno

So it looks like it's time to watch Juno. I saw part of it a while ago, when we had a substitute teacher in Spanish in high school and someone just happened to have Juno with them. We told the teacher we'd watch it in Spanish and then we conveniently couldn't figure out how to change the langauge. So now it's time to watch all of it. It wasn't on the list, but hey, lots of people have seen it, right? I mean, it's not one of the more "old classic" sort of movies on my list, but it does fit with the "my fellow college students have all seen this" part of my list. So it's something I should take care of. Plus, it was one of the movies available at the front desk of my dorm. Easy access was a factor with this choice.

So the movie's starting, and I'm thinking, "What is up with all this Sunny D?" Clearly, I didn't remember a whole lot from watching it before. I mean, I knew she was pregnant, but I didn't remember/didn't realize, "Oh yes, she's going to need to pee a bunch for that big test."

It became clear pretty quickly that Juno's the kind of person I like. All snarky and witty and wearing what's comfy instead of trendy. That's awesome. Actually, that's just me, or so I like to think. I mean, I know I dress that way, but I like to think I've got snarky and witty covered too. Juno's me but pregnant. Except that I totally eat like a pregnant girl sometimes. A giant cookie and a lamb kabob? Yes, please. Not as simultaneously as Juno would've had them, but still.

Anyway, her snarkiness and wittiness leads me to my next point: this is a pretty funny movie. Yeah, we've got a pregnant sixteen-year-old, and yeah, there are real consequences of that-and that's good-but it's still funny. And I definitely prefer that to something all dramatic and over-the-top. Not that teen pregnancy isn't a huge emotional thing, but I feel like that's done more often in entertainment. I can't be sure though. If I could, I wouldn't have to watch so many things. Either way, this is the right way to mix humor and pregnancy. I'm sure it can be kind of distasteful if done incorrectly. Anyway, it's a good and hilarious movie. Babies in t-shirt guns in China? Yeah.

I really enjoyed Juno’s relationships with people—particularly Bleeker, Mark, and her stepmom. Bleeker’s all awkward and shy (I mean, obviously. It’s Michael Cera.), and Juno’s—I don’t know if I want to say confident?—but definitely more sure of herself, or less concerned with what other people think. And normally, I’d say, “No, you had a kid and now you’re falling in love? This is so backwards. You guys won’t work out.” But I’m pretty sure they will.

Her relationship with Mark is interesting. I mean, is he a cool alternative father figure? Is he something like a romantic interest? He’s not really the right age for either, and then he acts a bit younger… But he’s not creepy. So it more or less works out to a cool friend. I think.

I love Juno’s relationship with her stepmom. Juno can throw up blue slushie in her urn, but she’ll still defend her daughter to the bitch ultrasound technician. It’s great. You can have dysfunctional family relationships where people still come through for each other when it’s necessary. 

I enjoyed the soundtrack. Usually, I’m not really a fan of a bunch of songs with actual words in movies. They’re appropriate a few times in most movies, but mostly unnecessary. I think it worked here though, maybe because it added to the quirkiness. And hey, fun fact: Wikipedia tells me this was 20^th Century Fox’s first number one soundtrack since Titanic, which is cool because that’s what I talked about last.

As a side note, or really an end note, I've been told twice that I look/sound like Ellen Page. I guess I can see that. And hear it. It's a bit weird that I was at work both times I was told that. The second time, this woman was whispering to her friend about "how that cashier looks like the pregnant girl in that one movie..." and I said, "Ellen Page?" because I was proud of myself for knowing  (but that was only because a coworker had made the comparison just a month or two earlier) and because I wanted her to know I could hear her. Anyway. This isn't about me.

I think I'm gonna go buy some orange Tic Tacs now. 

P.S. Does anyone have a clue what Dancing Elk Condors are?